


take a deep breath; feed it oxygen

by gallaghcrs



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drug Addiction, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Minor Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, War, fucky wucky time stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-27 03:57:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18296369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallaghcrs/pseuds/gallaghcrs
Summary: Turns out, Klaus’ stolen suitcase can transport more than one person at a time.





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! i haven’t written in a while but this is something new ive been working on!! 
> 
> be safe y’all, trigger warning for:  
> \- violence (specifically gun violence)  
> \- war  
> \- minor descriptions of ptsd   
> \- minor mentions of suicide/suicidal thoughts

It’s raining for what feels like the hundredth time since he’s arrived. The sound of heavy drops splattering on the canvas overhead is the only thing familiar about this strange place — hell, he isn’t sure he’ll ever be able to listen to the sound of rain again without thinking of these nights spent in the middle of nowhere unsure of if he’ll even be alive tomorrow. He’s dreading the moment the sergeant’s voice tears through the base like scissors through paper because it signifies another battle, another round of dodging bullets and firing more back, praying to whatever magical force may be out there that he survives this round of the elimination game. He’s forgotten how many days it’s been, and he’s beginning to wonder how much more he can take. Every day feels like the final straw, the moment that pushes him over the edge and makes him realize that none of this is worth it.

He’s seen it happen before — men who are so sick of being trapped by this insistent carnage that they sacrifice themselves. The difference between them and Klaus is that Klaus can leave. He could have left months ago. He could leave now. He drops one leg off of his bunk, feeling around in the dark until his foot hits the edge of the suitcase he keeps stuffed underneath. And of course, it’s still there, just where he had left it. His link to the rest of the world and the bridge to his past. All he has to do is open it back up, and he’ll be out of here.

He hears a muffled sniffle next to him and he turns to the side, immediately reminded of why he decided to stay for so long. Dave rests — somehow, despite the thundering noise that engulfs them — peacefully on the bunk next to his. If Klaus leaves, he’ll never see him again. And Jesus Christ, if his old life doesn’t have Dave in it, then he doesn’t fucking want it.

It’s Dave that drives him. He’s the force that keeps Klaus pushing on. Even when it feels like the world is collapsing around him, one look at Dave and Klaus feels like he could piece everything back together again with his bare hands. There was a moment — maybe a week ago, though Klaus isn’t sure because time seems to blur — when he had thought for sure Dave was going to die. In the midst of the gunfire and the rain and the bombs, a new sound arose: the sound of Dave screaming. Not for the war or for the adrenaline or because it felt like everyone fucking else was screaming, but because he was in pain. So much pain that it was completely unbearable, that the only way to release some of it was by shouting at the sky and maybe even God himself for letting this happen. Klaus had felt his world stop. It felt like the soldiers on both sides of the battle had frozen in place, bullets stopped in their tracks just before hitting their victims, and raindrops remained just millimeters above hitting the muddy floor. The only thing that mattered was Dave, and Klaus rushed to him, holding him tight without caring that time started moving again and there were predators across the field that had their sights set on them. If Klaus had been granted the power to feel what other people were feeling, he would have taken Dave’s pain — all of it, every goddamn ounce, and he would have taken it with fucking glory.

That sound acted like a catalyst to something within him, and he felt like a true superhuman when he raised his rifle once more and fired at everything that moved. He was sure he missed almost all of the shots he took, but he didn’t fucking care. He just wanted one, at least one of the bullets he fired to hit the bastard that shot Dave.

Though Klaus didn’t know it at the time, the bullet had entered through the fleshy part of his arm, miraculously avoiding bones or major arteries. He would be fine in a few weeks with bandages and whatever rest he could get, but it still scared the shit out of him.

It could happen again. It could happen again and this time it could hit him in the heart or the head or an artery, and Klaus would have to listen to him as he bled out next to him and — fuck, he feels like he’s going to vomit just from thinking about it. He can’t let that happen to Dave, he can’t let that happen to himself. He’d never been particularly happy with his life or how he turned out, so maybe under other circumstances, the idea of death wouldn’t sound so bad to him. But he’s happy when he’s with Dave, somehow, in the midst of all of this, he’s found a little slice of happiness in the soldier that bunks next to him. And he doesn’t want to lose that so soon.

He reaches under his bunk and pulls the suitcase out by the handle, placing it gently on his bed. It seems like mostly everyone else is asleep, and even if they aren’t, they’re all too preoccupied with their own mountain of thoughts to pay attention to what Klaus is doing. He runs his fingers over the edges of it until he finds the clasps on the front. He toys with one of them for a moment, dangerously tempted by the fact that if he just flicked them open, he’d be out of here. Safe. He glances at Dave again, then back at the suitcase, and something in his head clicks that hadn’t clicked before.

He doesn’t know shit about how time traveling works, hell, he doesn’t even know for sure he’ll end up back home when he opens this thing up again. He doesn’t know if it’s just a one person at a time deal, or if maybe, just maybe, it’ll work on two people. It’s a possibility. He imagines going home and taking Dave with him, being safe with Dave. If he believed in a heaven, that would be it: being safe with Dave. There’s the chance that it won’t work and Klaus will leave alone, deserting Dave and abandoning one of the only people who’s ever meant something to him. But he has to take risks sometimes, right? If he thinks there’s a way to save the both of them, then he has to at least try it.

Dave is still asleep. Klaus reaches an arm across the gap between their bunks, gently running a finger through his hair. Klaus smiles for once, watching Dave twitch slightly at the brush of Klaus’ fingertip. “Hey,” Klaus whispers, dragging his finger along his cheek now, trying to wake him up in a way that won’t startle him. He doesn’t want him to get the wrong idea. “Gotta show you something, Dave.” His eyes flicker open once, opening and closing a few times before they stay open and adjust to the darkness.

Dave’s gaze autofocuses on Klaus and he grins, bringing a hand up to rest on top of the finger that is still lingering on the side of his cheek. “Everything okay?” he asks, worry invading his voice in the most heartbreaking way. Klaus wishes for nothing more than to be able to wake up with Dave in a situation where simply waking up doesn’t invoke worry.

“Yes, yes of course,” Klaus shushes. “Come over here. Come sit on my bunk, I have something to show you.”

“That sounds very suspicious, Klaus,” Dave jokes, still trying to keep his voice quiet.

“Just trust me,” Klaus pleads. He hears Dave sigh, then muffled rustling as he bridges the gap between their bunks and sits cross-legged across from Klaus. He can see him a little more clearly now, the outline of his face and jaw and eyes, a perfect structure that will continue to entrance Klaus every time he sees it. He bites back a grin as he slides the suitcase across to Dave. “Don’t open it yet,” he warns, watching Dave turn it over curiously in his hands.

“Is this a suitcase?” he asks cautiously. He shakes it around, brings it closer to his eyes to examine it closer, and he even smells it, but he still can’t figure out what it is. Not that Klaus is expecting him to. “What’s in this?”

“Okay, listen, you have to trust me on this,” Klaus says, taking a deep breath. He reaches across for Dave’s hands and clasps them both with his own, worried that if he lets go he might lose track of him. “Do you trust me?”

“I trust you,” Dave says with a sense of confidence, and Klaus believes him.

“If we open up this suitcase, we could be transported out of here. I...I don’t know where yet. If it works right it should be the year 2019, but I don’t fucking know exactly how this thing works, but does the year really matter as long as we’re safe?” Klaus explains, tripping over his words, unsure of what he’s saying but there’s a voice in his head telling him that this is right. “Dave, we could get out of this fucking mess. Together.” Klaus squeezes his hands a little tighter.

Klaus watches his expression go through a multitude of changes. But the final one, the one that stands out, is one of a sad kind of acceptance. “Klaus…” Dave mumbles. “That’s not possible. I’m so sorry Klaus, I’m so sorry this is happening to you…” he rambles on, listing off apologies that he shouldn’t even be sorry for.

“I’m serious Dave. This is how I got here, I’m thinking it could take us back,” he implores.

“I knew being out here in the middle of this could cause people to have delusions,” Dave whispers. “I just didn’t think they could get this bad.”

Oh. He thinks he’s having delusions from being trapped in this war zone for so long. It makes Klaus want to sob, but he holds himself back with a strength he didn’t know he had because he doesn’t want to wake everyone else up. “It’s not delusions, Dave,” Klaus says again, leaning in closer, so close their foreheads are almost roughing. “I swear it. I swear this could work. You said you trusted me.”

Dave looks away, avoiding Klaus’ hard stare, and Klaus catches a glimpse of what looks like tears streaming down his face. “I do trust you, but this…” Dave trails off for a few moments. “Jesus, I wish I could wake you up from this nightmare.”

“You can,” Klaus interjects, leaning in more and this time there foreheads are touching, linking them together. They lock eyes, Dave looking absolutely fucking destroyed by Klaus’ insistent pleas of escaping into the future or the past or wherever they end up. “I just need you to come with me.”

“Okay,” Dave says through a broken up cry and a hesitant nod. “Yeah, Klaus. I’ll come with you. How do we get there?”

Klaus lets go of his hands and places the suitcase in the middle of them. “When I open it up, place your hand on it and hold my hand with your other hand. And then close your eyes and...abra cadabra, I guess?” Dave sniffles out a gruff laugh through his cries and nods again, apparently unable to speak.

“Abra cadabra,” Dave repeats.

Klaus takes a deep breath again. In an instant, he could be back home with Dave at his side, or he could be back home alone knowing that Dave will have to continue on without him. Opening this suitcase could either save his life or ruin it. He holds Dave’s hand with one of his palms and uses his free hand to undo the first latch, gritting his teeth when he undoes the second. The world goes hazy, and he flips the top open, keeping one hand held tight around Dave’s wrist. This time, he really could lose him if he lets go. They’re swallowed up by a storm of blue light, electricity crackling around them, lost somewhere between the present and the past and the future. Somewhere in another universe.

Klaus doesn’t know where he is or where he’ll end up, but he grasps at hope with any amount of strength that he has left, clinging to Dave, his lifeline and his unstoppable driving force.

 

 


	2. I.

Klaus is afraid to open his eyes. He could open them to see that he’s been sent back to the 1920’s or he could end up somewhere in the far future after the world has ended. And possibly even more concerning is that when he opens his eyes, he’ll see if it worked, he’ll see if Dave is next to him or if he’s stranded back in the war, wondering how the fuck his lover just disappeared right in front of his eyes.

He keeps his eyes shut for longer than he needs to, letting himself calm down and letting his brain adjust to the jump in time. With a little more focus he can hear quiet chatter around him and he can feel himself moving. He must be in a car or on a bus, which is already a step up from the last time when he woke up in the middle of a war on the fighting side. It calms his nerves slightly, knowing that at least he’s somewhere safe, and it gives him the will to crack his eyes open one at a time as to not overwhelm himself. He was right, he’s on a bus — and by the look of the world outside the window across from him, he’s in the right time zone. He lets go of a breath that he wasn’t aware he had been holding in and feels like he could cry just from the relief.

Hesitantly, he turns his head to the side, his focus switching to the more important issue at hand — is Dave here as well? Somehow, despite it all, despite the war and the unsureities and the what felt like a million cement walls standing in the way of them and a life together, Dave is sitting next to him, staring straight ahead, eyes glossed over in a way that makes him look like tears could start spilling over any second. Klaus laughs to himself, maniacally and hopefully, until he realizes that Dave isn’t laughing — Dave hasn’t even moved, hasn’t even acknowledged the obvious. “Dave?” Klaus mumbles, leaning against his shoulder. “It worked, Dave. I told you it would work.”

Dave parts his lips like he wants to say something but is struggling to get the words out. He’s still staring straight ahead, eyes locked on the windows. Klaus feels something is wrong, though he doesn’t know what it is. And not being able to help is terrifying. “Where…” he stutters, pressing his eyebrows together. “Where the hell are we?”

“It’s 2019,” Klaus says slowly. He lets one of his hands glide across the bus seat until he reaches Dave’s hand, letting his palm rest across his calloused knuckles in a desperate attempt to comfort him. It doesn’t seem to work, his hands and blood are ice cold and he’s barely moved at all. “Dave? Dave, please tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I don’t…” Dave starts to say, squinting his eyes now. He flips his hand over so he can intertwine his fingers with Klaus’. It makes Klaus’ heart stop for a moment in the best way possible. “I don’t understand.”

Though Klaus was never the smartest of his siblings, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on here: Dave must have entered some type of shock. Jesus, how could he not? One minute he’s in the middle of a war when his seemingly delusional boyfriend offers him a one way ticket into the future, and the next minute he really is in the future, completely lost as to how he ended up there. He must be so scared, and of course, Klaus can understand why. “Hey, it’s okay,” Klaus says, holding his hand tighter. “It’s me. I’m right here, and you’re okay. We’re both okay.”

“I don’t wanna go back,” Dave says, finally facing Klaus and meeting his eyes. “I don’t wanna go back,” he repeats, even more insistent this time. Almost a plea, like he’s begging for his life.

“You’ll never have to go back there again,” Klaus reassures him. He wants to explain everything to him, all of the stuff he has never told him before — about himself and his family — but he knows he’s already being overwhelmed by all of the new information that 2019 is flooding into his mind, and Klaus knows that telling him any more right now will only confuse him more and make matters worse. “I’ll explain everything soon but...you need to rest, okay? I’m gonna take you back to my house.”

Dave nods, probably because that’s really all he can do. It’s not like he has much of a choice. The bus stops and the doors open to the sidewalk just outside of the busier part of the city. They’re not too far from home, they should be able to walk the rest of the way. The only problem is that Dave seems completely overcome by fatigue and Klaus isn’t so sure if he’ll be able to make it the whole way, and neither of them have money for a cab. It’s okay, though, because if Dave passed out on the way home from exhaustion, Klaus wouldn’t hesitate to carry him the rest of the way even if it meant breaking both of his scrawny little arms. “This is where we get off,” Klaus says, nudging his arm gently. Dave hesitates for a few moments, looking around the bus as other people stand and walk off, then he follows suit, standing up on shaky legs and heading towards the exit.

Dave pauses just as they get off the bus and the doors go shut again. He stares at the sky and the buildings that surround them, completely lost in a new world that’s unlike anything he’s seen before. The feeling must be something akin to sensory overload: everything is so new, he can’t process it all at once without his brain starting to shut down from being overworked. “Bet you never thought you’d ever see what the year 2019 looks like, huh?” Klaus jokes, trying to lighten the mood. He starts down the sidewalk and gestures for Dave to follow him. He does, slowly, trying to take every sight in, but he does nonetheless.

“I don’t even know how this is real,” Dave says. “I don’t even know yet if it’s real.”

That’s fair. If he was in his position, he’d be doubting the reality of it all, too. Klaus stops in the middle of the sidewalk and turns around to face Dave. It’s then that Klaus realizes how out of place they both must look, their ragged clothes and dirty skin and messy hair. They’ll need a bath when they get home, and the idea sends a sense of warmth through Klaus’ body. It’s been so long since he’s had a real bath. He approaches Dave, who’s been a few steps behind him, and holds his head in his hands, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “That was real, wasn’t it?” Klaus asks through a grin.

The corners of Dave’s lips curl up in a soft smile and it’s the best thing Klaus has seen in a long time. “That was definitely real.”

-

When they arrive at the front of the house, Klaus hopes it’s empty. The last thing he wants to do right now is explain this situation to his overbearing siblings. “We’re here,” Klaus says to him. Dave doesn’t look away from the house, he’s probably thinking that Klaus is some sort of royalty from the looks of it. When they step inside, Dave’s awe seems to be intensified by the grand room and the high ceilings. “It’s not...it’s not technically my house,” Klaus says, trying to brush it off. “It was my dad’s,” Klaus shrugs. Klaus doesn’t want Dave to think that he’s some sort of rich, entitled brat, but he also doesn’t want to admit that without this house he’d still be crashing at stranger’s houses every night, or even worse, sleeping on the side of the street. “Do you want a bath?” Klaus asks, trying to change the subject.

“That would be nice,” Dave says with a nod. Klaus leads him through the house, down the familiar halls. It feels weird being back. It feels like everything and nothing has changed in the time that he’s been gone. Everything looks the same, the portraits that hang on the walls and the chandeliers, but the house now feels like he’s walking through a ghost town. Thankfully, he hasn’t run into any of his siblings yet, so he ducks quickly into the bathroom and shuts the door behind them.

He turns on the warm water and lets it run for a few moments to heat up, then plugs the tub as it starts to fill. “I thought I’d never take a bath again,” Dave says, and Klaus nods in agreement. He strips out of his clothes, then helps Dave out of his own, and they sit down in the tub of warm water — externally silent but internally surrounded by the nonstop chatter of their minds racing. Klaus lies down against the back of the tub, leaving room for Dave to go sit down between his legs and rest his back against Klaus’ chest. Almost instinctively, Klaus cups warm water in his hands and starts to drip it over Dave’s hair, wetting it before massaging a few pumps of shampoo into it. “Thank you,” Dave says, and something tells Klaus he’s referring to more than just the fact that he’s washing his hair.

“My pleasure,” Klaus answers, starting to lose himself in the rhythmic pattern of running his hands through Dave’s hair. “I have so much to tell you,” Klaus whispers against his ear. When he’s satisfied with how his hair is looking, he cups water in his hands once again, and gently starts to rinse out the soap. “But I don’t know how to.”

“It can wait,” Dave says. Klaus nods in understanding and moves on to the rest of his body, scrubbing grime off of his skin with soap that smells like honey. They don’t talk for the rest of the time it takes for them to clean up — they don’t need to. The comforting touches they exchange speak for themselves — the kiss that Klaus sneakily places against the back of Dave’s shoulder, the way Dave places a hand on the outside of Klaus’ thigh under the water, every brush of skin against skin speaks for them the feelings that they don’t know how to express.

Klaus loses track of time again, and they don’t get out of the bath until the water starts to turn cold and their skin wrinkles. Klaus grabs a towel and dried himself off, tossing Dave a towel as well. “Feeling any better?” Klaus asks, rubbing the towel over his wet hair.

“A little,” Dave shrugs “Still don’t know what the hell is going on but...better,” he adds. Maybe he just needs to sleep it off. His mind is probably running at a million miles a minute and he really just needs to silence it.

“Maybe a nap would help?” Klaus suggests. Dave nods, so Klaus, wrapped in nothing but his towel, leads Dave down the hall to his old bedroom. He scavenges the closer until he finds an old T-shirt and a pair of shorts for Dave, and a pair of jeans and an old tank top for himself. “Here. You can wear this,” Klaus says, tossing the clothes to him. While he gets dressed, Klaus readjusts the bed — moving the pillows so they’re actually at the top of the bed and pulling the blankets up. He would go to sleep too, but right now, he has too much on his mind. He couldn’t rest even if he wanted to.

Dave climbs into bed, instantly sinking into the mattress. Must be a huge change from the paper thin mattresses they used for their bunks. “I’ll be right here when you wake up,” Klaus says, sitting on the edge of the bed and brushing his hand across Dave’s cheek. “Goodnight,” Klaus says, planting a kiss on his forehead. He watches his eyes fall shut, then he sneakily tip goes out of the room and closes the door as quietly as he can. When he turns around, he sees Five standing a few feet down the hallway, arms crossed in front of him. “Oh, hey,” Klaus says, trying to play it off like everything is completely normal and he didn’t just return from a war.

“Who was that?” Five asks, nodding in the direction of Klaus’ room. And this is exactly what he was trying to avoid, an impromptu interrogation.

“Just a friend,” Klaus shrugs. Five considers this, tilting his head to one side and studying Klaus’ expression. Klaus tries to hide any sign that there might be something wrong by giving him a small smile and trying to keep his eyes from watering up.

“Hmm…” Five hums. “Then where have you been?”

Klaus scoffs. “I’m never home anyway, why do you need to know where I’ve been this time?”

“I’ve spent a lot of time jumping to different time periods. I know how it feels, I know the signs. And I know you’ve been screwing with time, Klaus.”

“What?” Klaus laughs. “Of course not. You know I can’t do that.”

“You must have had a suitcase. Where’d you get it, then? And where did you go?”

Dammit. Five is too good. There’s no way Klaus can keep up this lie for too long, especially once Dave wakes up, so he might as well spill now. “Alright. Fine. When those fucking lunatics who were looking for you kidnapped me, I stole their suitcase because I thought it’d have money in it. And when I opened it up — bam, I was suddenly in the middle of a war.”

“So where’d your friend come from?” Five asks, gesturing to the door to the bedroom. “Don’t tell me you brought him back from wherever you went off to.” Klaus hesitates, biting his lip. “Goddamnit, Klaus, do you know how stupid that was of you?”

Five keeps mumbling to himself, incoherent words that Klaus doesn’t understand. “What was I supposed to do? Leave him there to die?” Klaus asks, taking a step forward. “I love him. I couldn’t do that.”

“The commission doesn’t give a shit who you love,” Five snaps. “You need to find a way to either get him back or get rid of him.”

Get rid of him. Get rid of him? As in… “Did you just fucking suggest that I kill him? Are you out of your fucking mind, you little psychopath?”

“If you don’t do it, the commission will. And they’ll be cruel about it. They’ll do it slow and painfully because it’s entertainment to them.”

“What the fuck is the commission?”

“Jesus, you don’t even know that,” Five mumbles. “It’s a group of people who keep the timeline going the way that it’s supposed to go. And by bringing him back here, you’ve screwed it up. So someone from the commission will be assigned to kill him so that the timeline goes back on the right path.”

“They won’t. I won’t let them.”

“They’re powerful people, Klaus. They’ll do whatever it takes. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

Five, apparently sick of Klaus’ bullshit, shakes his head and disappears into a cloud of blue sparkling electricity. And just like that, he’s gone, leaving Klaus to simmer on everything he’s just learned. He’s fucked with the timeline, and someone’s going to be sent to fix it. That’s what the suitcases must be for — they allow ordinary people to travel around through time, doing their job to keep things on track. And one of them is going to come after Dave.

Jesus Christ, what the fuck has he done?

 


	3. II.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven’t fully watched tua in a hot minute so i dont think im accurate on some of the specifics of when the other characters find out about the commission or about hazel and cha cha etc but. that doesn’t really matter i guess just pretend it’s right ok 
> 
>  
> 
> also!!! thank u for the kudos and nice comments!! ive been meaning to reply to them but mayhaps i am a forgetful wench

Klaus, suddenly realizing how cold he is, holds his arms protectively over his chest. Someone’s going to come after Dave. Five’s lecture keeps playing over and over again in his head — Dave isn’t supposed to be here, Dave’s supposed to be back in Vietnam, and now everything’s fucked because Klaus had to bring him back. He went screwing around with the timeline and now Dave would have to pay the price for it. Who knows, maybe he would have survived the war and lived a decent life, but because of Klaus’ complete selfishness, he would be dead in a few days. Days? Maybe hours. Klaus has no idea how fast the Commission, or whatever it was that Five had called it, works. He’s running out of time before he can even figure out how much time he has left.

He’s almost scared to leave Dave alone to sleep — no, scratch that. He is scared. Terrified, actually, that he’ll leave for a few minutes and when he comes back Dave will be gone, never having seen it coming. And Klaus won’t be able to live with that, knowing that it was him who caused Dave’s death. Not the war, not the Commission. No, it would be a direct result of Klaus’ actions, the one person Dave thought he could trust.

After telling himself about twenty times that Dave will be okay if he leaves him alone for ten minutes, which Klaus hopes will become true the more he says it to himself, he decides that Dave will still be safe when he comes back from a short walk downstairs to clear his head. Klaus likes spending time in the huge, open space at the entrance of the house. It’s almost empty, and it feels like that calm energy gets absorbed into his own body whenever he sits in that room to think. As he heads down the stairs, he notices that someone else is walking through the room, about to leave. With a closer look, he realizes that it’s Diego. He looks busy, so Klaus wouldn’t have bothered him if Diego hadn’t heard him coming down the steps and called out to him. “Klaus?” he says, squinting his eyes. “What’s up with you? You look like shit.”

“Nothing,” Klaus shrugs. Where would he even begin trying to explain something like this? It’s not like Diego actually cares anyway, you’re just supposed to ask people what’s wrong because it’s the nice thing to do. Diego wouldn’t want to hear about all of Klaus’ messy bullshit. “It’s nothing. Where are you going?”

“I gotta take care of something,” Diego says, trying to brush it off. He starts walking towards the door again, but stops himself and turns back around. He has a sympathetic look in his eyes and has his lips pursed together just slightly. “Hey, you sure everything’s good? You’re acting off.”

“Told you, it’s nothing,” he repeats. Diego still doesn’t seem satisfied with this answer. “It’s just that I took a new pill, something I haven’t tried before. Just...it’s just making me feel weird.” Klaus notices the crack in his voice, of course he does, but he pretends he doesn’t, smiling at Diego with tears lining his cheeks. “Don’t worry about it, go do whatever you were gonna do.”

“You’re crying.”

“Forget it.”

“You’re crying.”

Klaus wipes the tears off of his cheeks, leaving behind a sheer glisten over his pink skin. “I suppose I am,” he says jokingly, but Diego doesn’t laugh and neither does Klaus.

Diego sighs and glances back and forth between the door and Klaus like he’s trying to make up his mind about something. “Come on, you can tell me about it in the car.” Usually, it’s the other way around. It’s usually Klaus asking Diego for a ride, not Diego asking Klaus if he needs a ride. It must be Klaus’ hesitation that truly gives him away, because everything was fine, he’d jump at the chance for a free ride. “Klaus? You coming, man?”

Klaus glances upstairs, in the direction of his room where Dave is resting, and nervously picks at his fingernails. He can’t leave. Someone’s probably already looking for Dave, and the second he leaves, he’s putting him at an even bigger risk than he’s already at. “No, I’m okay, you go ahead. You’ve got some lives to save, or whatever the fuck it is you do.”

“It can wait,” Diego says. “Are you gonna tell me what’s going on? It can wait for now, but not forever.”

Diego might be able to help, right? Five clearly wasn’t as willing to offer any comfort, but Diego also isn’t as cold as their younger (or older) brother is. Diego won’t be able to fix things — he’s about as useless as Klaus is when it comes to the inner workings of time travel — but he seems like he actually is quite eager to listen. And that’s better than nothing. “I really, really fucked up,” Klaus starts. “Like, royally.”

“Jesus Christ,” Diego mumbles, crossing his arms. “What’d you do?”

“Okay, you know those two assassins that came after Five?” Klaus asks, and Diego nods in response. “Well, they kidnapped me, but I escaped and stole their suitcase because I thought it would have money in it. But when I opened it actually...I got sent back in time.”

Diego looks stunned, probably not believing Klaus’ story, probably thinking he was just having bad hallucinations while he was high. Klaus is about to give up, because he knows his sibling will always chalk up anything wrong with him to the side effects of drugs, but not this time. “Like...like Five does? But isn’t he the only one who can do that?”

“No, I guess anyone can, as long as you have one of those suitcases. I just talked to Five, and there’s like...there’s a whole group of people who use the suitcases to travel around and — you know what, that’s not the point right now,” Klaus says. He barely understands what’s going on himself, he can’t explain it to someone else in a way that makes sense. “The point is, I traveled back, and ended up in the Vietnam war.

Diego narrows his eyes, pressing his brows together. “Like, _the_ Vietnam war?” he asks, studying Klaus closely, trying to make some sense out of this. “What, you weren’t fighting, were you?” he asks. Klaus doesn’t need to say anything — the dark haze that comes over his eyes says it all. Diego’s good at reading him like that. “Oh, Jesus, Klaus. You’re alright now, though?”

“I am,” he says slowly, nodding slightly. It’s hard to move his body, he realizes, even if it’s just his head. It feels like each of his limbs weighs two hundred pounds and he’s dragging them through mud. “But...Dave isn’t.”

“Dave?” Diego questions. “Who the fuck is Dave?”

“I met him in the war,” Klaus says. He can’t help it — despite the circumstances, he finds himself smiling at distant memories of him and Dave, at the times they found themselves with a break from the fighting. “And I love him. I love him so much that I would die for him and I would kill for him.”

Diego looks down at the floor with his expression drooping as he swallows a lump in his throat. “I get it.”

“But I fucked it up. I used the suitcase to get back here, and I brought him with me, but Five said there’s this thing called the Commission who assassinate people who mess with the timeline. And since Dave isn’t supposed to be here, that makes him one of their targets.”

“Shit,” Diego mumbles, running a hand through his air. “Do you think it was the same people who came after Five and kidnapped you? Maybe they’ll be the ones to come after Dave, since they’ve been assigned to Five.” It does sort of make sense. If they’re supposed to take care of Five, then why wouldn’t they be assigned to take care of anything else involving his siblings as well? They’re kind of a package deal. “I know how to get to the motel they’re at, I found it after they killed Eudora. We can get there and kill them before they can get to you or Dave or Five.”

They did kill Eudora, Klaus had almost forgotten. He should’ve done something, but he didn’t. He was only thinking of himself when he grabbed the suitcase and crawled out of there. He won’t tell Diego now, he isn’t sure if he’ll ever tell him. “Five said they’re way more powerful than we could imagine, that would be stupid to go after them.”

“Since when do we ever listen to Five?” Diego remarks. It’s true, but Klaus is still unsure. He’s not exactly feeling up to assassinating the assassins right now. He’s not feeling up to anything right now. “Klaus, there’s something else,” Diego says, before Klaus can even deny or accept his idea. “When Five jumped ahead in time, he saw the end of the world. The apocalypse is in a few days.”

Oh. Great. As if the images of the war flooding his mind and trying to save Dave from being assassinated weren’t enough, he now has to add the fucking apocalypse onto his list of things to worry about. There’s a part of him that’s trying to say that bringing Dave back with him was useless if the world is ending soon anyway, and that there’s no point in trying to save him if everyone’s going to be dead in a few days, but there’s another, smarter part of himself that’s waging a bloody war on that negative bitch in his head. The smarter part of him is yelling that it is worth it, that he wouldn’t want to spend his final days doing anything other than being with Dave. “Well, fuck everything else, I’m going into hibernation until the world ends and I’m bringing Dave with me.”

“You can’t do that,” Diego argues. “We’re supposed to stop the apocalypse, and we all need to be together to stop it.” Klaus scoffs and looks the other way. What’s the point in stopping it? It’s the fucking apocalypse, what are they gonna do? Throw some knives into the mass destruction? Tell the black hole that opens up that they heard a rumor it decided not to end the world? “Okay. Look. Let’s just take you and Dave somewhere where they won’t find you, just for now. Just until we figure something out, okay? Where’s he at now?”

He motions for Diego to follow him and starts upstairs, comforted by how silent the rest of the house is. So far, he knows there were no intruders coming to kill Dave. “He’s asleep,” Klaus says, approaching the door to his room. “I feel bad waking him up already, he barely had ten minutes to rest and he was really out of it when we came back.”

“He can sleep more, and better, when you’re both somewhere safe,” Diego says, and Klaus decides reluctantly that he’s right. He slowly pushes the door open, smiling at the way Dave clutches the covers to his chest in his sleep. “Holy shit.”

“What?” Klaus snaps, head spinning to face him.

“It’s just...I believed you, I did. But if I had any doubts at all, this kind of proves that everything really was true.”

Of course it’s true, Klaus wants to say, but he stops himself, knowing that he would have some doubts too if one of his siblings told him that they travelled to the Vietnam war and brought back their significant other with them. Dave looks, for what feels like the first time ever, truly at peace during his sleep, and Klaus will feel forever guilty for disturbing him. “Dave,” Klaus says, kneeling at the edge of the bed and nudging his shoulder softly. “Dave, wake up, love.”

It doesn’t take him long to wake up, probably because he was barely even asleep. He looks around the room for a few moments before sighing, his head falling back on the pillow. “I’m still here.”

“You’re still here, yeah.”

“I thought…” Dave starts, fumbling for the right words. “I thought maybe it was a dream, or I was in a coma and when I woke up I’d be back in Vietnam.”

“Listen, Dave,” Klaus begins to explain, but he’s cut off by the way Dave avoids his eyes, pointing at something off to the side of the room. Klaus follows his gaze and his finger until he realizes he’s looking at Diego.

“Who…?”

“That’s my brother, Diego,” Klaus says. There’s silence as Dave seems to process this, eyes blinking rapidly at the small wave Diego gives him. “I know this is crazy, Dave. And I understand if you don’t trust me and if you don’t believe me. But you’re in danger, and it’s my fault. You’re not supposed to be here in 2019, and there are people who want to make sure you leave this year,” Klaus explains. Dave watches him with intrigue as the words go through his ears, but it seems like he doesn’t understand any of it. Klaus shouldn’t have expected him to understand, he’s just a normal person who got roped into the Hargreeves’ fucked up life. “We’re going to protect you, though. We’re going to go somewhere so they can’t find us. Everything’s gonna be okay, everything’s gonna be okay.” Klaus can’t figure out if he’s telling himself that or if he’s telling Dave that.

Klaus extends his arm, waiting for Dave to grab his hand. He does, wrapping his fingers around Klaus’ and holding his hand tight. Not because he understands or because he trusts Klaus, but because he’s a man from 1968 trapped in the year 2019 and he has nowhere else to go. It breaks Klaus’ heart. The last thing he wants to do is scare Dave, but it seems like lately, that’s all he’s been doing. “Come on,” Klaus says, helping Dave out of bed. He’s still shaky and he can’t quite walk right without limping heavily.

“Hey, I’ll help him down, you pack up whatever you might need for the night,” Diego says. Klaus nods, trying to hide his wet face as he guides Dave to Diego who grabs one of his arms and steadies him as he walks. God, was he always such a pussy who cried at everything?

He grabs an old bag and shoves some clean clothes into it, along with the stash of his emergency money. When searching for the money, he comes across a stash of something else. “Don’t.” Klaus looks up, and Ben is sitting on the bed, watching him with a disapproving gaze. “Klaus, you were clean for so long, do you really want to throw that away now?”

“I can’t handle this,” Klaus says, grabbing the stash of pills and shoving them into his bag. His nerves have skyrocketed like they’re trying to kill him from the inside out, and he can’t shake the feeling of spirits screaming at him everytime he closes his eyes. He needs them, for his own safety. Ben sighs, shaking his head.

“Come on, down the steps we go,” Klaus hears Diego saying from down the hall. Klaus thinks of Dave, and how everything felt so real with him. He thought of how much Dave believed in him and how much he would be let down if Klaus started using again.

Klaus pulls the pills out of his bag and holds them steady in his hand, thinking about dumping them and forgetting them. But no matter how hard Klaus wishes they would, Dave’s feelings won’t stop the nightmares that plague his thoughts, they won’t stop the sudden urges he gets that make him feel like he’s going to die when the ignores them, and they won’t stop the emptiness that fills him on bad days. With a pang of guilt, he sighs, shoving the drugs back into his bag and following the other two downstairs. 


End file.
